Previews

Pocket Kingdom

Prove your l33t superiority over the rest of the world in one of the weirdest games you've ever seen.

Spiffy:

A new type of video game; highly addictive; many options in units and equipment.

Iffy:

Some may be turned off by the fact that you don't actually do much playing in it.

After spending a bunch of time playing the Pocket Kingdom beta, I can say with all confidence that this is a one-of-a-kind game. How often do you get to hear that in this day and age of me-too copycats and uninspired sequels? PK is at the same time the most laid back and the most frantic digital experience. It's the perfect game for chilling in a waiting room or on the bus, but you may end up drawing some glances when you wince or cheer from the actions of your squad.

The Game You Don't Play

The odd thing about Pocket Kingdom -- well, one of the odder things -- is that there's essentially no gameplay. I'm not talking about tactical RPGs where you just dish out the orders. I mean that once you're engaged in combat, you have zero control. At that point, you just have to hope you prepared your crew to own the competition, and cheerlead as best you can. With no gameplay, that means that it's all about what you do between fights.

Of course I won. I'm a major OMGWTFBBQ or something!

The first order of business is crafting a few four-person regiments with stars in their eyes. One needs to be designated the defensive team, garrisoned to your own kingdom, or you'll be defenseless to attacks -- not a good thing. Your other party/parties are responsible for carving their way through the land. You'll want to place the attack classes up front where they can do the most damage, and then keep projectile-firing types or archers at the back. When forming groups, you can designate each character's battle tendencies -- staying in the front lines, focusing on the highest-ranking opponent, etc. You also have the ability to give one of four orders to the party in general -- whether you want them to be fierce attackers, cautiously defensive, evasion-minded for longer skirmishes, or you'd prefer to have them lay the special moves on thick. For defensive parties, you can also choose a special technique to give them the advantage over hostile crews, ranging from putting everyone to sleep to dropping them from the ceiling at the battle's start.

You Can Make It!

At first, you can only buy soldiers and nobles. New units trickle in as you move onto new areas of the world, but the real way to get different classes is by combining items -- won in battle or bought -- to make emblems. These will change your noble into a feared necromancer, or make your simple soldier a long-distance archer. Combining items can also craft new equipment -- of which each character can equip one. Pick a weapon or armor base, add the metal ore, then sprinkle in an extra item or two to boost its effectiveness. You can see the potential result before going through with it. Just be careful with your rarest items, because there is a chance that the combination will fail.